Formula Botanica’s flagship podcast Green Beauty Conversations has reached an impressive milestone and it’s time to celebrate. We’ve just registered one million downloads. For me, this equates to one million green beauty stories as each download represents a listener who will have formed their own unique opinions prompted by our conversations.
The green beauty space has grown enormously since we started recording just over five years ago, but there are few podcasts sorting the green washing from the facts and tackling controversial topics in green beauty – or even in the beauty industry in general – as we do in Green Beauty Conversations.
It’s been a memorable five years, and I’ve been honoured to host such inspirational guests and to have had the support of an incredible backroom team here at Formula Botanica. You can read all about what goes on behind the scenes in our celebration of 100 episodes . We’ve gone from two episodes a month to a weekly output, and all this alongside running the day-to-day business of the leading online cosmetic formulation school with over 19,000 students in over 190 countries.
To celebrate, my team turned the tables – or microphone – to interview me about Green Beauty Conversations and discover my key takeouts as we hit the one millionth download. Read on for my inside story on the podcast that is now a very public face of Formula Botanica.
What inspired you to start the podcast?
Formula Botanica started the Green Beauty Conversations podcast in 2018 as a way of reaching our wonderful audience in a different way with a different message. The Green Beauty Conversations podcast allows us show our audience and the whole beauty industry that we’re thought leaders in our field.
While our blog posts are packed full of information about organic formulation, ingredients’ research and tips for starting an indie beauty brand, they don’t give me an outlet to share my opinions. The podcast allows me to explore concepts that aren’t yet being talked about in the industry, or that need challenging.
What are you proudest of?
I’m proud of our longevity, more than anything. Most podcasts stop publishing within a matter of months, but we’ve kept going for 5.5 years! I also find that the longer I host the podcast, the more I have to say. That longevity plays a big part in the reason that Green Beauty Conversations is now recognised as the go-to podcast on everything to do with sustainability and green beauty.
What do you love most about the podcast?
I love being able to explore concepts that no one else is talking about, in a way that I am not beholden to any shareholders or big beauty companies. I find that the sustainability conversation throughout the cosmetics industry is generally shallow and doesn’t actually go to the heart of what needs to change. I have the ability to say exactly what I think, which feels liberating.
I also love being able to meet so many fascinating guests from all over the world. It’s allowed me to get to know other thought leaders in this field and exchange ideas with them, which has been a huge privilege.
What has been your favourite topic(s) to cover?
This is a hard question, as I’ve had the pleasure of covering many topics and hosting many interviews that I’ve found fascinating. I think some of my favourites were podcasts I hosted with Formula Botanica Education Manager Ana Green, where we explored what biodegradability actually means and what skinimalism represents. Just under a year ago, I picked out some of my all-time favourite podcast topics in guest episodes that dive deep into the kind of controversial and urgent conversations the wider beauty industry needs to be having.
What has the feedback been like from our community?
The feedback from our community has been amazing! Many people message me to tell me how episodes have shaped their thinking around certain topics. I regularly receive messages from Formula Botanica students too, who can’t believe the value we provide for free in the podcast on top of their award-winning online courses.
That love I received from our listeners is shown in the 600+ 5-star reviews of the podcast, as well as the fact that we regularly hit the number 1 spot in the beauty podcast charts in over 50 countries.
Our listener base extends well beyond the Formula Botanica community though, as I also hear from journalists and even executives in the corporate world of cosmetics, who listen to the podcast too.
Any controversy along the way?
I think the most controversial moment was when one of my guests, Dr Barb Paldus, told me that any of our listeners who didn’t buy into biotech beauty were the equivalent of flat earthers. She took me somewhat by surprise with that statement, which is why I laughed at the time. We received a few angry emails afterwards.
And your favourite bloopers?
The beauty of pre-recording a podcast means that you can cut out all of the bloopers, and believe me, there have been many of the years. My favourite blooper happened fairly recently in an interview I was doing with Shane Price of Green Circle Salons, when we had to pause recording for about 5 minutes as two drivers started engaging in a road rage battle outside of his window. I couldn’t see any of it, but it sounded like he had an angry moose rampaging past his office!
What has been the most inspiring / groundbreaking thing you have covered?
The most groundbreaking topics I’ve covered have been those episodes where I’ve been able to redefine what certain concepts in the beauty industry actually mean. Examples include the episode in which I proposed a new definition for the term “clean beauty”, and another in which Ana Green and I picked apart the definition of so-called ‘waterless’ beauty, or where I challenged us all to think about how the word ‘beauty’ in itself is defined.
Where do you see the Green Beauty Conversations podcast in 5 years time?
I see us still leading the conversation around sustainability in beauty, still speaking freely on topics that matter and still upholding fearless critique of a mainstream beauty industry that is out of touch with reality and needs a complete overhaul. I see Green Beauty Conversations continuing to push for a more informed, sustainable future for the beauty industry.
What have you personally learnt through your experience of hosting the podcast?
I’ve learnt how to confidently share my opinions with the world in a way that I know helps our listeners. I’ve learnt how to research and articulate my ideas to create thought-provoking episodes. I’ve also learnt a lot about interviewing guests, hosting episodes and podcast tech in general! I now deeply love podcasting and hope it forms part of my career for many more years.
Thank you for joining us for this episode of the Formula Botanica Green Beauty Conversations podcast. If you enjoyed listening, please share, subscribe and review this episode on iTunes, Spotify or Youtube so that more people can enjoy the show. Don’t forget to follow and connect with us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
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Lorraine Dallmeier is a Biologist, Chartered Environmentalist and the CEO of Formula Botanica, the award-winning online organic cosmetic science school. Read more about Lorraine and the Formula Botanica Team.
